Bottle-stopper.



Patented Feb. 20, |900.

\w.- A. LnnENz. BOTTLE STOPPER.

(Application led Aug. 17, 1899.)

2 Sheets-Sheet L (No Model.)

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No. 643,770. Patented Feb. 20, 1900.

' W. A. LORENZ.

BOTTLE STOPPEB. (Aprcatpn led Aug'. 17, 1899.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2..

(No Model.)

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

1WILLIAM A. LORENZ, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

BOTTLE-STOPPER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 643,770, dated February 20, 1900.

n Application filed August 17, 1899. Serial No. 727,602. (No model.)

T0 ctZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. LORENZ, a citizen'of the United States of America, and a resident of Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bottle-Stoppers, of which the followingis a specication.

This invention relates to that general class of bottle-Stoppers which are made of ductile, but substantially-inelastic, -material and are expanded withinthe necks of the bottles or other receptacles against an annular gasket of rubber or some yielding' substance, the stopper being retained in its expanded condition by the inelastic character of the material of which it is made, so as to permanently seal the mouth of the receptacle.

Figure l of the drawings is a plan view, and Fig. 2 is a side view in longitudinal section, taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. l, of one form of my improved bottle-stopper. In Fig. 2 is also shown in'dot-and-dash outline the fingers of an expanding apparatus. Fig. 3 isaside view, in central longitudinal section, of a bottle, showing the stopper of Figs. 1 and 2 expanded within the neck of the bottle, against the sealing-gasket thereof. Fig. 4. is a plan view of a slightly-modified form of bottle-stopper. Fig. 5 is a side view iu section, taken on the line 5 5 of Fig. 4, of this stopper'supported upon the fingers of the expanding instrument. Fig. 6 is a side View, in central longitudinal section, similar to that of Fig. 3, showing the stopper and expanding-lingers of Fig. 5 in their expanded position. Fig. 7 is a side view, in central longitudinal section, showing one of these improved bottle-stoppers of approximately the size most commonly employed for the sealing of bottles containing beer, sodawater, and similar beverages. Figs. 8 and 9 are similar side views, on asimilar scale, illustrating the distortion to which one of these shallow Stoppers is liable during the expanding operation when not provided with the internal reinforcing rim or shoulder of this invention. Figs. l0 and l1 are diagrammatic views showing, in a scale enlarged approximately four times, the comparative eiect of expansion upon the stopper of Figs. 2 and 3 and upon a stopper of similar size having a flat bottom, the latter stopper being represented in Fig. l0, while Fig. ll represents my improved stopper.

Bottles and similar receptacles of this class are ordinarily sealed by means of a ductile and inelastic metallic stopper, which is expanded against an annular rubber gasket located in a groove around the interior of the neck of the bottle. In order to locate, level, and support t-he stopper in proper position before it is expanded, some of the Stoppers are provided with an outwardly-turned shoulder or rim, which rests upon the top ofthe bottle, the cupped or depending portion being deep enough to reach down to the plane or zone of the gasket. These improved stoppers are shallow, being approximately only the width of the gasket itself, and therefore do not reach to the top of the bottle to locate and level them; nor is it considered desirable to provide the interior of the bottle-neck with an annular shoulder below the gasketseat, which projects far enough to support the bottom of the stopper in its proper relation to the gasket while the expanding apparatus is being applied and operated. This method is objectionable for the reason that the projecting shoulder unduly contracts the orifice or mouth of the bottle and also aords a lodgment for dirt and other foreign substances, thereby increasing the difficulty of filling and emptying the receptacles and of Washing them perfectly clean.

In the practical application of the present invention the stopper instead of being supported directly by the bottle is adapted to be supported in proper relation to the gasket by the instrument employed for expanding the stopper, thereby also insuring proper engaging and operative relations between the stopper and the instru ment. This is accomplished by providing the stopper with an inwardlyyturned rim which may be turned upwardly by the expanding operation or turned downward against the inside of the stopper, so as to form an internal reinforcement therefor.

Theform of stopper l2 (shown in Figs. l, 2, and 3) consists of a plate of suitably-ductile metal which is manufactured by means of well-known methods in the form best shown in Fig. 2. The cylindrical zone 13 of this stopper is to be expanded against the 'gasket IOO and is therefore of a diameter which enables it i' to be readily inserted in the bottle-neck. The upper rim of the stopper is turned inwardly to form the internal annular flange 14. This serves to support the stopper upon the fingers E of the expanding instrument and also serves during the expanding operation to reinforce the cylindrical zone 13 and -preventit from being bent outwardly, as illustrated in Fig. 9.

The bottom of the stopper is cupped or dished downwardly at 15, so as to more readily permit of the expansion ot the cylindrical portion 13 to the form shown in Fig. 3. The extent of the depression is preferablygreater than would be required to allow for the expansion ofthe stopper, so that the latter when in its expanded condition still presents a downward-arched bottom, being thereby stiffened and enabled to withstand greaterpressure than could be sustained by a fiat bottom of equal thickness and strength of material. The upward pressure of the gas against the fiat or upwardly-arched bottom of such a stopper would tend to draw its sides away from the gasket, and thereby to unseal the bottle; but the upward pressure against the downwardly-arched bottom herein shown tends to flatten the arch, and thereby still further expand the adjacent lower edge of the zone 13 against the gasket, thus increasing the security of the seal. This feature enables higher pressures to be conned with stoppers made from materials of a given strength or allows of the use of thinner or weaker materials for resisting a given pressure.

In Figs. 10 and 11 is shown, in a scale enlarged substantially four times from that of Figs. 1, 2, and 3, a diagrammatic representation of the comparative effect of the expansion upon my improved stopper 12 and upon a flat-bottom stopper 12a of the same diameter. In both of these figures the solid black lines representthe respective stoppers in their original unexpanded form, While the dot-and-dash outlines show approximately the extent to which they are ordinarily expanded, that extent being equalin both cases.

It is found in practice that the expansion of a fiat-bottom stopper like that of Fig. 10 aects substantially the annular zone thereof adjacent to its cylindrical side, indicated in that figure in its unexpanded form by the numeral 15a and in its expanded form by the numeral 15b. In other words, the expansion of the cylindrical sides of the stopper to the dot-and-dash outline thereof shown in this gure necessitates the extension of the adjacent zone 15 of the bottom to the extent represented by 15", and this extension can only take place by stretching that zone both radially and annularly, This stretching of the metal of this zone in two directions reduces the thickness thereof to an extent twice as great as the reduction of the thickness of the cylindrical side 13, since the latter is stretched in an annular direction only. Therefore the thickness of the metal at the corner 15c is reduced to an appreciable extent below that of the cylindrical side above it. The effect of a similar expansion of my stopper 12 is shown in dot-and-dash outline in Fig. 11. The arched bottom of that stopper is extended t-o the increased diameter by merely flattening the arched bottom to a suitable extent, thus avoiding the necessity for stretching the metal in a radial direction, the only' reduction in thickness of the zone 15 of the bottom being that due to its being stretched in an annular direction, this reduction at the corner cbeing no greater than that of the adjacent cylindrical side 13. Thus the zone 15 is extended from its full-line to its dot-and-dash position without appreciably increasing its width. In other words, the flat bottom of the stopper of Fig. 10 can only be expanded to its dot-and-dash outline by stretching the zone 15a both radially and annularly, while the corresponding zone 15 of the arched bottom of the stopper 12 of Fig. 11 requires only to be stretched annularly, its extension in a radial direction to its dotand-dash position being attained by Hattening the arch to the desired extent.

The depth of thearch of the bottom should be adapted to the extent of expansion required and should be sufficient to allow the bottom to remain in arched form after expansion, thereby not only adapting the stopper to meet a greater variation in the size of the bottle-neck without any radial stretching of the bottom, but enabling the stopper when expanded in the bottle to resist greater internal pressure therein both by reason of its downwardly-arched bottom and because of the fact that the metal thereof has not been subjected to the double reduction of its thickness that would result from stretching it both radially and annularly.

The bottle-stopper 20 (shown in Figs. 4, 5, and 6) differs from the stopper 12 of the preceding fgures only in the form and disposition of the inwardly-turned rim 21, which is somewhat wider than the rim 14 and is reversed against the inner sides of the cyl-indrical zone 23. This stopper is preferably manufactured in the form shown in Fig. 5, so as to afford means for supporting the stopper upon the fingers E of the expanding instrument, the reversed rim 21 being subsequently folded closely against the interior of the cylindrical zone 23 of the stopper, as shown in Fig. G, thereby forminga reinforcement therefor to prevent the unsealing of the gasket, even if the pressure within the bottle should be great enough to atten or reverse the arched bottom, and thus tend to draw the sides of the stopper away from the gasket, as hereinbefore alluded to. This reinforcing-rim when employed in connection with a downwardly-arched bottom, as shown in Fig. 6, allows of the employment of thinner metal for the stopper than would ordinarily be permissible, inasmuch as it aords a maximum of strength and efficiency with a IIO minimum of thickness and weight of material.

The operation of sealinga bottle with either form of these improved Stoppers is performed as follows: The gasket g being placed in position in the interior of the mouth of the bottle, one of the stoppers is slipped over the fingers E of the expanding instrument and is supported upon these fingers in the position shown in Figs. 2 and 5. The stopper is then lowered into the mouth of the bottle to the plane of the gasket g and the fingers E are expanded, as shown in Figs. 3 and 6, thereby compressing the sides of the gasket outwardly against its seat, after which the fingers are contracted and withdrawn. The location of the stopper with relation to the gasket may be accurately and uniformly established by means of a stop attached to the expanding instrument and resting upon the top of the bottle, or that position may be determined for bottles of uniform height by means of a stop applied in any convenient and wellknown way to a slide or similar device upon which the expanding apparatus or the bottles may be supported. This shallow form of stopper allows of a considerable saving in the material of which theylare lnade as compared with the deeper forms required to reach and project over the top of the bottle; but unless the shallow stopper is made of material so thick as to offset the economy due to its lesscned area or else is reinforced in some such` way as herein shown the resistance of the bottle to the expanding operation is liable to cause the sides to bend outwardly from a cylindrical to a daring form, and thus allow the stopper to slip off from the expanding-fingers E, this liability being all the greater when the bottoms of the stoppers are fiat instead of being cupped or depressed. This liability is illustrated in Figs. S and 9, the former representing an unexpanded stopper 17, having a flat bottom 18 and shallow unreinforced sides 19, while the latter figure represents the same stopper in the distorted and useless form which it is liable to take as a result of the attempt to expand it. When thus distorted, it will slip oif from the expanding-fingers and not only fail to seal the bottle, but will sometimes become wedged in the gasketseat, so as to be removed with difficulty.

This improved stopper is obviously applicable not only to bottles, but to all similar receptacles which require to be hermetically sealed either for the exclusion of air or for the confining of effervescent beverages.

I claim as my invention- 1. A cup-shaped bottle-stopper of a diameter smaller than that of the neck of its bottle and adapted to be expanded therein, provided with an inwardly-turned ange for engaging with an expanding instrument to support the stopper thereon.

2. A cup-shaped bottle-stopper having upwardly-turned sides of a diameter smaller than that of the neck of the bottle, and adapted to be expanded therein, provided with a downwardly-depressed imperforate bottom, having an excess of fullness over that required for the expansion of the stopper so as to remain in downwardly-arched form after expansion.

3. In combination with a bottle-neck having an internal retaining-seat and a gasket therefor, a cup-shaped bottle-stopper having upwardly-turned sides of a diameter smaller than that of the neck of the bottle, and adaptedl to be expanded therein, provided with a downwardly-depressed imperforate bottom,

'having an excess of fullness over that required for the expansion of the stopper so as to remain in downwardly-arched form after expansion.

4. An expansible cup-shapedbottle-stopper having its rim folded inwardly against its sides to form an annular reinforcement therefor.

5. A cup-shaped bottle-stopper having its upper edge turned inwardly to form an annular rim for engaging with an expanding instrument to support the stopper thereon, and to be folded by the expanding operation against the inside of the stopper to form an annular reinforcement therefor.

G. An expansible, metallic bottle-stopper having a cylindrical Zone for expanding against a gasket, and having its upper edge turned inwardly to form a supporting-shoulder for engaging with an expanding instrument, the bottom of the cap being depressed with sufficient fullness to remain in a dished or arched position after the stopper is expanded.

7. An expansible metallic bottle-stopper having an outer zone 23, and an inner zone 2l, for expanding against the gasket and for reinforcing the stopper when expanded.

8. An expansible cup-shaped bottle-stopper having its rim folded inwardly against its sides to form an annular reinforcement therefor, and provided with a downwardly-de- VVILLAM A. LORENZ.

Witnesses:

Jos. MERRITT, JENNIE NELLIS CASE.

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